A little late writing this, a busy 2 days, however a (relatively) quiet Saturday morning and time to ‘put pen to paper’.  The last of our Australian ports and, as with most of these more northern towns and cities it was, once again, extremely hot and sticky.  Temperatures in the mid-30’sC, almost 90F and a humidity that had one perspiring profusely.  I have a post from a previous call, so you can see photos on that one too.  To get to Darwin we had to sail through a group of islands, with currents running up to 4 knots and then sail down the Darwin river to the berth.  The pilot acted as ‘advisor’ and left the Bridge team to it as we did so, greeted by a stunning sunrise.

The skyline of Darwin

An overview of our route

The river passage

The dock, of the 2 we berthed on the left-hand one

This time we hopped on the “hop on, hop off” bus, although we only ‘hopped off’ once. 🙂 

Sitting on the top-deck and under the shade of a canvas roof, we stood more of a chance with the breeze than one would have done on the lower deck.  Even so, when stopped, even that breeze disappeared and I find myself longing for the bus to get underway again.  The trip took us around the environs of Darwin in approximately 90 minutes.  If anywhere, I would have jumped off at the ‘Defence of Darwin’ items, for it was heavily bombed during WW2 by the Japanese, their aircraft flying from Papua New Guinea, only 60 or so miles away.  The Australians fought a bloody campaign there in an effort to stop the Japanese taking the vital objective of Port Moresby, their intended ‘jumping off’ point for invasion.  Needless to say the Aussies succeeded, but at a terrible price.  I recall as a young boy, one of my father’s  best friends, an Aussie, who fought in the campaign and his refusal to buy anything Japanese, an impossibility nowadays. 

A hot me….

Us on the berth

 We had our last Captain’s Dinner last night.  Every full-world cruiser is invited to one of these and this year we have far more than usual.  15 dinners later, I have finished my ‘eating my way’ around the world 🙂   I have also had my fair share of functions and I post a photo of one of them, a Renewal of Vows for our long-time cruisers and friends Alex and Kirstin.

 I write as we pass through a Strait, at the south-west end of the island of Timor.  Overcast, with rain squalls, we are making towards the ‘Island of Dragons’, not the one from Game of Thrones, but Komodo Island, home of the Komodo dragons.  We arrive there tomorrow morning, no berth so we anchor and tender guests ashore.  Everyone going ashore has to be accompanied by a guide, no-one is allowed just to wander off, these creatures can be dangerous!